The Military Service Act only requires that those among us who can best be released from the occupations in which they are now engaged shall serve in the field under conditions as honorable as surround their fellow Canadians in uniform and under regulations no more onerous or exacting. The Militia Act as amended in 1906 provided that the Government could place the militia “on active service anywhere in Canada and also beyond Canada for the defence thereof at any time when it appears advisable so to do by reason of emergency.” Enough has been said to reveal an emergency in which nothing less fundamental is at stake than the existence of Canada as a free country. If Germany should triumph we would not have a choice between Independence and British Connection. We would pass under German sovereignty. There would be no protection under the Monroe Doctrine. If Germany should not be conquered the United States, in arms against the Germanic alliance, would be involved in the common defeat of the Allies. Washington would be as powerless as London or Ottawa to determine the future political status of the Canadian people. Recalling the desperate valor of Canadian soldiers in many battles with the best troops of Germany, is it likely that Ontario or Quebec or any other Canadian province would escape the hard fate of Alsace and Lorraine or receive a greater portion of mercy than the harassed Polish subjects of the Kaiser? Clearly, therefore, the Canadian regiments are as surely defending Canada in France and Flanders as though they were actually resisting invasion along the St. Lawrence. XXI. By the Militia Act it was provided that “if at any time enough men do not volunteer to complete the quota required the men liable to serve shall be drafted by ballot.” Chiefly because of this provision the Militia Act was amended or superseded by the Military Service Act. It was manifest that selection by ballot would continue and multiply the inequalities produced by voluntary recruiting. Occupations and industries embarrassed by scarcity of labor would suffer still further, and physical fitness for war would be the general test of eligibility. It was, therefore, declared that “by reason of the large number of men who have already left agricultural and industrial pursuits in Canada to join the Expeditionary Force as volunteers, and of the necessity of sustaining under such conditions the productivity of the Dominion, it is expedient to secure the men still required, not by ballot, as provided in the Militia Act, but by selective draft.” Other provisions of the Act divide the available manhood of the country into six classes ranging in age from 20 to 45 and subject to selection according to military necessity, number of dependents and order of physical fitness. XXII.